This is Stephanie, reporting in on nuggets gleaned from the EPMEN conference we spoke at this week.  Lots of wedding marketing learning.  Yahoo!

First stop: the wisdom of Sonny Ganguly, Wedding Wire CMO and chief technology brainiac, who blew our minds with a Back to the Future inspired trip through the changing technology from 2003 years ago to to 2023.

Highlights From “What’s New in Tech”

“When you innovate to what your competition is already doing, that’s not a successful place to be.”

Sonny cited the examples of companies Blockbuster and Kodak who once dominated their markets.  Blockbuster was defeated by Netflix’s innovative service that eliminated late fees and the need to visit the store.  Kodak was similarly killed by the digital camera.

Both companies attempted to imitate their competition with identical services, failed and went bankrupt.

Unfortunately, too many wedding professionals do the same thing.  They do what the competition is doing in an attempt to survive.  As a long-term strategy, it’s doomed to failure.

Instead, innovate by finding a need in the market you can serve that your competition hasn’t found.  

Go SO LO MO for your wedding business.

SOcial – In order to thrive, your business simply must have a strong social media presence.

Rather than trying to master every social media site, an impossible task, Sonny recommends, “Put a couple stakes in the ground and knock them out of the park.”  Focus on a few social media sites and do them well.

LOcal – Think local for your wedding business.

You need to focus on getting local traffic and ranking in order for your business to succeed.  This means local keywords are still vitally important.

MObil – Go mobile!  Make sure your website is easily accessible via mobile devices.

Right now brides and grooms are trying to access your website from their mobile devices.  If they can’t find what they are looking for in a simple format that works on a phone or tablet, they’ll move on to your competitors.

Interesting Social Media Stats

Pinterest has fewer members, but they’re more active.

While Pinterest’s growth has leveled off since its spike to over 40 million users in April and May of 2012, you’ll get 5x more activity per follower than you will on Facebook.  Pinterest users are also 10x more likely to repin, comment or like you than Twitter users.

Tumblr is the future.

Tumblr is a micro-blogging site largely dominated by 14-17 year olds.  What does this have to do with the wedding business?

In 5-10 years, those Tumblr kids are going to be entering our target customer group as they begin to plan their weddings.  Creating a strong presence on Tumblr now is placing a stake in the ground to build on the future of your wedding business.

“Play where your customer is going to be,” Sonny says.

Apps of Note For Wedding Pros

Montaj and Vyclone are new apps with particular usefulness for the wedding business.

Montaj is a free iPhone app that allows you to create up to 40 seven second HD video clips and create a video montage with music that’s perfect for showing off your events.

Vyclone allows you to auto-synch videos from multiple sources into one seamless piece.

Email Tips

Test out sending emails on Saturday and Sunday.

Wedding Wire has found that their emails have a higher open rate over the weekend because couples have free access to email on their mobile phones.

If you send regular email blasts to your couples, schedule weekend mailings to see if your open rates improve.

Don’t send email to people who don’t open and click on your emails.

Email clients like AOL, Gmail and Yahoo are increasingly strict in their anti-spam measures.  If you repeatedly email people who do not open or click through your emails, email clients, it counts against you.

Eventually, your emails will not get delivered to anyone.

Sift through your email list and place those that haven’t taken an action in over 90 days on a separate list.  Attempt to re-engage them with a message, “Do you still want to get emails from me?” and if you don’t get any action, stop emailing them.

While Sonny always blows our minds with the technological advances, it’s just the wake up call we need to remain the choice for the next generation of brides and grooms.

How is new technology affecting your business?  Leave a comment.

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Question: How can I collect bride leads for my email list?

“Hi Stephanie,

I’m so excited about the AES [Automatic Expert System] and have so many ideas.  Since I design cakes for all occasions, I want to be able to collect leads so I can promote special promotions, new cake flavors/products, etc. Clients often can also forward to family and friends of these promotions.   Of course, I want to collect leads from brides.   Could you share some insight on how I could approach?

Thank you!

Sweet Regards,”

Veronica

Answer:

Hi, Veronica.

It would be really helpful for you to brainstorm ideas for capturing leads and following up with them.  I’m sure you’d be much better at this than me, since you know your business and market best. 

In order to capture the name and email of people who visit your website you need:

1.  An email marketing service like Aweber that lets you send personalized mass emails and  create forms for collecting these leads.

2. A compelling offer or cool free giveaway people get when signing up for your email list. This might be a free informational report, coupons, video tutorials, checklists, etc.

3. A webform displayed on your website to make your clear offer in a way that gets
attention and inspires action.

4. Website traffic.  Don’t forget that people need to SEE your offer in order to sign up for it!

Here are some suggestions for getting high quality leads on your email list:

•  Invite them to sign up for your email list for a chance to win a “cake of the month.” (You could do the same as a reward for liking your Facebook page.)

• Invite them to sign up for your text message list to get exclusive coupons and discounts.  This works great for the restaurant industry to make and keep loyal customers.

• Use a wedding specific free giveaway and transition your customers to updates of your blog posts via blog broadcast, including special deals and promotions.

• Get your followers involved, once you have a good number of them, by asking for their suggestions on cakes to make for your “cake of the month” or even let them name a new flavor.

The key is to make sure whatever you offer is really valuable and desirable to your customers.

Ask your current/past customers for ideas about what you can give away to potential customers that would be really cool.  They’ll be your best resource!

What do you think about collecting more leads this way?

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Question: “How do I pre-qualify brides and create strong partnerships with other wedding businesses?”

“Hello,
I definitely give it [The Price Shopper Email Formula] a thumbs up.  I had heard about these principles in my previous career as a mortgage broker and never ocurred to me to apply them to the wedding business.  I’m still in the process of starting up the business so I definitely want to make sure I start the right way.  You can rest assure these principles will be used on my daily operations.

My questions to you are, how do I pre-qualify brides?  What things should I keep in mind when I look for vendors/partners and to maintain a strong relationship with them?  And what are the standard referral fees?”

Rose

Answer:

Hi, Rose!

You ask some really good questions.

How do I pre-qualify brides?  

Pre-qualifying brides and grooms who contact you can save time and eliminate the frustration of dealing with couples who aren’t the right match for you.  The more qualified the lead, the more valuable it is.

Some ways to pre-qualify leads:

1.  Get referrals from high quality sources, like other wedding businesses.

A warm lead from another wedding business comes in pre-qualified because they’ve recommended you highly.  It’s especially valuable if they also work with your ideal couples; leads from them are likely a good match for you right off the bat.

2. Talk to them on the phone.  

Ask them a series of questions about their wedding and discover if they are a good match for you.

Make the goal of your response to get them on the phone, and this makes your job a lot easier.

3. Create a free giveaway informational report or video (something we fondly call a “Bride Bribe”) to give brides when they sign up for your email list.  

Create a series of follow up emails that share valuable information and gear it towards your ideal couples.

Warming up your leads with automated email follow up is a great way to create a relationship with them before you meet, demonstrate your expertise and pre-qualify them because the ones who aren’t right for you will naturally fall away.

What things should I keep in mind when I look for vendors/partners and to maintain a strong relationship with them?  

Think about who the bride/groom will be booking around the same time that they book you, or just before.  These types of vendors are a great source of referrals.

Target five businesses in your local area that:

•    Have an excellent reputation and specialize in weddings.

•    Do a large quantity of weddings each year so they have lots of referrals to give.

•    Attract your ideal couples.  Make sure they do weddings with a similar style, budget, etc.

Get to know these vendors and find out their challenges and opportunities.  Once you know this, you can find a way to help them.  (Find some suggestions in this article.)

Once you make the connection, nurture the relationship with regular follow up every month or so.

What are the standard referral fees?

I’m not aware that there are “standard” referrals fees.  We haven’t personally paid anyone a fee for recommending us, although we have advertised in venue books in order to qualify for their referrals.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with paying a referral fee.  The bottom line: does it make sense for your business?

It can cost a lot in marketing and advertising to get a real lead, so one warm referral from another vendor who the bride trusts can be worth quite a bit.  Figure out what it’s worth to you before venturing into any referral deals.

What do you think?

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A couple weeks ago we discovered that some unknown party has launched a negative SEO campaign pointing nonsense backlinks from poor quality sites at our domain.  The intention is to make it appear to Google as if we’re creating these “unnatural” links ourselves, so that Google will punish us by removing us from the rankings.

In non-geek speak, these “bad backlinks” mean that fewer people are finding us when searching for wedding marketing and wedding business related topics.

The reason we discovered this attack is because it worked, at least temporarily.  We noticed our rank slipping, launched an investigation and uncovered the reason why.

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to protect yourself if a competitor tries to poison your wedding business like this.  It’s unlikely, but not impossible, that this might happen to you.  Just in case, here’s how to recover.

Fighting Back Against Negative SEO

1. Diagnose the problem carefully.

You can find out if someone is trying to use negative SEO against you by running a backlink report from Majestic SEO or by searching your backlinks displayed in Google Webmaster Tools for strange anchor text and suspicious websites.

It’s normal to find a few of these spammy backlinks pointing to your site, and it takes hundreds to do some real damage.  However, if you notice an unexplained increase in backlinks with anchor text that doesn’t make sense or hundreds websites that have nothing to do with weddings linking to you, you may have a negative SEO problem.

2. Get as many of these links removed as you can.

We found over 500 of these “bad links” pointing to our website.  The only way to get them removed is to contact each website owner and request that they be taken down.

Oh, the pain!

Fortunately, there are a few tools you can use to make this job easier.  Rmoov, SEO Gadget’s Link Clean Up and Remove’em allow you to identify spammy backlinks, contact website owners and track your removal progress.

If you’re not able to find contact information for the website administrator, turn to a Whois Lookup.

3. Submit any links you can’t get removed to Google and Bing using the disavow tool.

If you aren’t able to get these links removed within a couple weeks, which is likely, you can submit any remaining backlinks you don’t want counted to the Google disavow tool and the Bing disavow tool.

Note: there’s quite a bit of controversy about the disavow tool in the SEO world, with many paranoid SEO experts wondering exactly what Google is doing with this information.  Even Google suggests that it be used only as a last resort.

After taking all of these actions, there’s no guarantee that your website will return to its former ranking, but you should see improvements within a month or two.

How to Protect Yourself

Which leads me to the Big Lesson learned from this whole adventure…

Don’t depend on any one source for all of your leads.  Ever.

Not Google searches.  Not your favorite wedding vendor.  Not your advertising.

Each lead source your business has is like a leg holding up the stool that is your business.

Imagine that your stool has three legs.  If you kick one leg out, it falls over.  Goodbye stool, goodbye business.

But if your stool has four, seven or ten legs, knocking one leg out still sucks, but the stool remains standing.

The more diverse your lead sources and the more places where brides and grooms can find you, the less vulnerable you are to disaster.

If a competitor tries to attack your website in Google, but couples can still find you on Facebook and you still get referrals from several other wedding businesses, it won’t kill your business.

Fortunately for us, Book More Brides gets lots of visitors from Facebook and LinkedIn.  So even if our Google traffic tanks, people can still find us.

Do the same thing for your business.  Be prepared for the unexpected as much as you can and keep flourishing no matter what comes your way.

Have you ever had trouble with competition?  Leave a comment and share your story.

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Question:  What can I offer other wedding professionals that will make them want to partner with me?

“I’ve been reading a lot of your stuff this week and have already implemented your price shopper template, created a business FB page and began comments and liking other vendors and venues, and re-thinking some things about my website.

“Anyway, my question: I’m particularly intrigued about the Favor Principle, particularly with other wedding vendors, planners, venue owners, etc.

“I would happy to help out other people, but I honestly don’t know what I could offer them.

“As a wedding pianist, I don’t really have a tangible item to give them. I would be happy to give referrals, but I NEVER have people ask me to refer another type of vendor, and I’m not well-known enough myself to feel like me saying, ‘I’ll refer you!’ would mean much.

“Anything that can get me thinking of some creative ideas in this area? Thanks!”

- Jennifer

*NOTE: The Favor aka Reciprocity Principle is a principle of psychology that works like this: when we do something nice for someone, they feel pressure to do something nice for us in return. This can be used powerfully in networking and marketing relationships.

Answer:

This is a really good question, Jennifer!  When we’re just starting out, it’s hard to imagine what you might have to offer, especially when you don’t have referrals to send.

Even without knowing you personally, I’m sure you have something of value to share with the other wedding professionals you meet.  Figuring out what that might be is a two step process.

Step 1 – Strike up a conversation with the professional and ask what his/her biggest challenge or opportunity is right now.

You can’t offer valuable help to someone unless you know what their needs are.  Once you understand that, you can start thinking about any resources you might have to help them.

In addition to helping you identify what you can do for the professional, it also demonstrates your interest, indicates that you care, and builds the relationship.  Bonus!

Step 2 – Identify the resources you have that might help solve this person’s problem or grow their opportunity.

Have you ever written down your assets and resources?  This is a fantastic exercise because you’ll realize just how much you have to offer and how many powerful resources you have to draw from.

Don’t forget to include all the intangibles, such as your education, information and connections, as well as your physical assets and skills.

Here are some examples:

• Professional resources – a great web programmer, designer, accountant

•  Information resources – a website, article or reference document

•  People and connections – Can you introduce them to someone who might be an asset?

•  Your own skills and talents – If you’re good with social media, you might help them set up a Facebook account.  Or if you like to write and they have a challenge with blogging, you might write a blog post for them.

 Once you create the habit of thinking, “How can I help this person?” you’ll find lots of things you can give.

This is also a super powerful strategy for building relationships with your clients as well.  When you become a valuable resource it proves your expertise and communicates the value of your price effortlessly.

What’s your favorite networking strategy?

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This is a letter written to brides and grooms in response to repeated negatively biased news programs and “expose’s” about wedding industry scams and ripoffs.

1. We spend WAY more than 4 hours on your wedding.

Couples are often shocked at the price tag attached to their wedding services.  “But I’m only hiring you for four hours!” is a common reaction.

What you don’t know is that we spend many hours outside your wedding day timeline on planning, communication, rehearsals, meetings, travel and all the logistics necessary to make that “four hours” look easy.  This doesn’t even take into account the necessary time investment in training and education to keep our skills sharp.

Let’s take photographers as an example.  According to this recent survey, the average photographer spends 65 hours invested in each wedding; when all the hours invested in a wedding are factored in, a typical wedding photographer makes an hourly wage only $37 per hour before expenses!  DJs, florists, officiants, planners and other pros are in a similar situation.

Most wedding professionals are not living large on “wedding ripoffs,” a charge often lodged by the media.  While the average wedding in the US costs around $25,000, a recent survey of our wedding professional audience revealed that 48% of wedding businesses make less than $25,000 in an entire YEAR.

2.  If you hire an amateur for your wedding, expect an amateur result.

Wedding professionals are not a commodity item.  You’re hiring a unique personality, talent and experience set.  We charge more because we are worth it.

Those amateurs you can hire for a dime a dozen?  They’re worth the price you pay, too.

Sure, you might luck out and find the next undiscovered Preston Bailey for your wedding, but you’re much more likely to get sub-par performance along with that bargain price.

3.  You pay more for wedding services because you get more.

Much has been made of the so-called “wedding markup,” a phenomenon that occurs when secret shoppers get quoted a higher price for identical services when they are booked for a wedding as opposed to another type of event.  While this certainly can occur, journalists neglect to address the very real reasons WHY this happens.

Providing any service for a wedding is far more involved than a similar, non-wedding event.  Wedding pros make themselves available for planning meetings, calls and consultations, and may well send hundreds of emails back and forth with a single client in the year or more of planning up to the wedding.

This type of time and attention isn’t expected or required for most non-wedding events; the time investment alone is enough to justify a higher price.  The quality of wedding services often requires a greater degree of skill and specialization, not to mention the stress and risk involved should something go wrong.

4. We stay up at night worrying about your wedding, too.

We may participate in dozens or even hundreds of weddings per year, but yours really IS important to us.

Each and every wedding can make or break our reputation.  We worry about what can go wrong and we sweat the details because it’s our responsibility.  If we mess something up, we know that in the age of viral sharing on the internet, it may very well destroy our business.

5.  Listening to our advice will save you time, money and stress.

We love your ideas and your enthusiasm.  Please know that when we suggest changes to your dream wedding scenario it’s not because we want to take over your wedding; it’s because we have your best interests at heart.

We probably made a lot of mistakes when planning our own wedding, and it’s inspired us to ensure that pain NEVER happens to you.

We’re wedding experts.  If you take advantage of our knowledge and experience, we will save you time, help you avoid mistakes and make your wedding even better.  But only if you let us.

6.  If you only have $10,000 to spend on your wedding, we can’t make it look like you spent $100,000 no matter what we do.

Weddings can be expensive, and you certainly don’t have to spend a lot of money.  But if you’re going to trim your budget, please don’t expect it to be a carbon copy of the Royal wedding.

It’s not because we don’t want to do it for you…it’s just impossible.

7.  We love what we do, but that doesn’t mean we want to do it 24 hours a day.

Working in the wedding industry is HARD.  It’s stressful.  There are deadlines, timelines and lots of pressure to make sure everything goes perfectly.

You know that anxiety that’s giving you nightmares?  We get them, too, and sometimes we need to take a break.

Yes, your wedding is important, but we can’t be available for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week without losing our sanity.  Remember that the next time you’re tempted to call your planner at 2am or before freaking out when s/he doesn’t answer your text immediately.

8.  It takes WAY more time and money to imitate those DIY projects and wedding inspiration shoots than you think.

We love that wedding porn as much as you do, but it sets up unrealistic expectations.  Wedding blogs and wedding reality TV misrepresent the details of what’s actually possible for a typical wedding with an average budget…one that doesn’t have a team of expert designers and planners working magic behind the scenes.

The media accuses the wedding industry of encouraging these unrealistic expectations so that you spend more more money.  The truth is that we hate it as much as you do!

It makes our job more difficult, and it puts us in the uncomfortable position of telling you, “No,” when it can’t be done on your budget.

9.  DIY projects are NOT a bargain.

Think you’re going to save money by having the wedding in your backyard?  When you add up the cost of the tent, rentals, food, booze and silverware, you end up spending MORE than you would hosting it in a traditional wedding hall.

The same thing goes for your favors, centerpieces and flowers.  It’s going to take you 10x longer and cost twice as much in reworks and mistakes than you think—especially if you’re a perfectionist.

Please don’t choose to DIY your wedding for the savings; make sure you actually like being crafty, and that you can adjust your expectations to accommodate less than perfection.

10.  Your wedding day will not be perfect, but we’ll be there to make sure it’s as close as possible.

I haven’t seen a single wedding where at least one thing didn’t go wrong.  Your bridal party will be late, the weather won’t cooperate, or the guests will forget to take home those favors you agonized over.  There are simply too many details and too tight of a timeline for everything to be completely perfect.

But when something goes wrong, we’ll be there to help you make it right.

What do you want your couples to know about what you do?  Leave a comment!

Please share this post because it contains vital information couples need to know about the wedding industry.

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As busy wedding professionals, we all juggle multiple schedules, projects and trying to meet each and every one of our clients’ needs.  Whether you deal with brides directly or online, it can be overwhelming and if you really analyze it, quite draining to be the best in the wedding biz on a daily basis.

In the midst of all of this stress, many professionals start to forget that clients are something to be thankful for.

The simple act of remembering to be thankful for your brides is the key to maintaining a great attitude and generating referrals and positive reviews for your business.

In our culture of instant online communication, it can be easy to keep up with a client’s demands without any warmth or appreciation shining through.

When was the last time you told a bride that you were thankful to have them as a client and to be a part of their special day?  If your answer isn’t “today,” you’ve got some work to do.
If you want to really make a positive impression that a bride will share with her engaged friends, you need to incorporate thankfulness into your day to day transactions.

Say Thank You and Earn Referrals

•    Consider adding a byline to your email signature that expresses how happy you are to work with your clients.

•    Changing your voicemail to include how thankful you are.

•    Tweet or Facebook that you are delighted to be working with Miss XYZ.  That bride will instantly feel important and her friends will see that she’s working with a professional who values her business.

•    Write each bride a thank you note and include a token gift as you finish working with her.
The gift shows that you are appreciative of her patronage AND reminds her about how amazing her experience was.  This physical gift/reminder will help boost your referrals and reviews, especially if you ask the recipient to recommend you to her friends and family within your note.

Remember, we reward people and companies that make us feel special with referrals and reviews.  Actively practicing the attitude of thankfulness will instantly separate you from your competition and result in more brides that want to work with you!

Danielle Tate is the founder and president of www.MissNowMrs.com, a name change expert, author of a top newlywed blog, bridal magazine contributor and on-camera personality.  Looking for the perfect thank you gift for your brides? Give them a MissNowMrs gift card to save them 13 hours on their transition from Miss to Mrs.!
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It happens in the ladies room.

There is always a line in the ladies room.  Maybe it’s because we stop to do our hair, chit chat and adjust our panty hose.  Anyway, there’s a line and we get on it.

There are three bathroom stalls and a dozen ladies waiting in line.  Two of those stalls are occupied, and the third stall is empty, but no one is using it.

We wait in line even thought that stall is empty because…well, everyone else is waiting in line, so there must be something wrong with the third stall.  Right?

Then it’s your turn to use the next empty stall, and on your way you push open the door to the unused third stall.  And inside you find…

A normal stall.  Perfectly clean.  Perfectly empty.

So how come ladies jump to the end of the line without checking on the empty stall first?

The Mystery of Social Proof

It’s because of something called, “Social Proof.”  Social Proof is one of the principles of influence described in Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, describing the automatic programming in our brains that determines what influences our behavior.

The Social Proof Principle works like this: when we walk into an environment and need to figure out what to do, we look at what everyone else is doing and do that.  The more uncertain we are, the more powerfully social proof influences our behavior.  95% of people make decisions this way.

Most of the time, using social proof in our decision making makes sense because it’s a reliable short cut our brains can use when we need to act quickly.  For instance, when making an emergency exit from a burning building, following the people in front of you who are taking instructions from the fire department is pretty smart.

What the heck does this have to do with booking more weddings?

Book More Weddings with Social Proof

Well, brides are typically very uncertain about planning their weddings.  They’ve never done it before and they don’t know what to do.  So what influences their buying behavior?

You guessed it: they look at what other brides are doing.  This is why they go gaga for reviews.  That’s social proof.

Dr. Cialdini’s studies show that reviews work to influence customers’ buying decisions even when they know they are fake!  That’s how powerful this principle is.

If brides and grooms can’t easily find an abundance of reviews about your business, you are losing weddings.

If you don’t have any reviews, take a step towards getting them TODAY.

1. Create a free listing for your business.  (On a site like Wedding Wire.)

2. Email a direct link to your listing to your most recent couple and ask them
to post a review.

3. Include a small thank you gift like a $5 gift certificate to Starbucks before
they post the review as an incentive.

Remember the line waiting for the empty bathroom stall and take advantage of the power of reviews for your business.

How do you use your reviews?  Leave a comment and tell us about it!

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I walk into a room crowded with other reluctant potential jurors reporting for jury duty.  All the seats are taken, so I huddle in the corner with six other women.

No one knows what we’re supposed to do.  There is no one in charge and no one is working here for us to ask.

I feel uncertain, even a little scared.

Am I in the right place?  Am I doing the right thing?  Right next door to the courthouse, I wonder if making the wrong move could be breaking the law.

It’s 45 minutes before the Commissioner of Jurors appears.  She explains what’s going on (finally!) and instructs us to separate our juror card along the perforations.  Of course, I screw it up and separate the perforations on the wrong side.

My anxiety increases.

Then it occurs to me that this is how our brides and grooms feel about planning a wedding: the complete insecurity, the anxiety, the need to do things “right” and the fear of what will happen if they mess it up.

Step into the bride’s shoes for a minute and imagine what this strange, unfamiliar planning a wedding landscape must look like for her.  She doesn’t know how much it should cost, or how to tell the real pros from the duds, or what it takes to run an event smoothly from start to finish.  Even the most sophisticated bride with her bulging planning binder is completely bereft and ignorant of just how huge a feat she has undertaken in planning a wedding.

For goodness’ sake, save her already!

Give her clear instructions about what to expect and what she needs to do.  Take charge.  She will be so, so grateful.

Believe me, brides don’t want to figure everything out on their own.  They need YOU to make this easy.

When they flounder, they’ll end up clinging to the one who throws them a life raft.

Be the couple’s wedding superhero and you’ll be richly rewarded.

How do you rescue your brides and grooms?

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Wedding directories are rampant online – and they offer a valuable service to brides and grooms looking for vendors. Directories might be attached to blogs, wedding magazines, or on their own websites. They collate local vendors into an easily searchable database to help couples find everything they need in one place.

Most directories offer a free listing alongside paid premium listings. By adding your business to as many directories as possible, you broaden your chances of being seen by more couples. Listing your business in wedding directories can also help your SEO (providing the listing links back to your website or social media pages).

So how do you get the most out of your directory listing? Here are my top tips:

Assess the directory’s market.

Each directory will target a specific target market – the type of couple they are trying to draw. Here are some examples of markets commonly targeted by wedding directories:

•    couples within a certain locality

•    high-end, mid-range or budget brides

•    eco-friendly weddings

•    gay-friendly weddings

•    vintage-style weddings

•    ”alternative” weddings

When writing the content for your directory listing, make sure you tailor it toward the directory’s target market. If you’re targeting same-sex couples, then talk about previous same-sex clients or your support for marriage equality. If you’re targeting budget brides, then offer a discount to leads coming through the directory.

If you’re allowed images, make sure they also reflect the directory’s market; high-end listings need high-quality images, while beach or backyard weddings are more appropriate for budget-friendly guides.

Choose the right category.

Every directory has a different system for categorizing wedding vendors: usually by geographic location or service type. Listings are usually only available under one category, and it’s simply a matter of choosing the category that best fits your business/location.

But choosing the correct category can be difficult. What if you are an online bridal boutique who can ship to any area? What if you’re a photographer who splits your time evenly between two states? How do you choose one location? What if you are a florist AND a cake decorator, but these two categories are separate and you can only choose one?

My advice is to focus on getting one really decent listing up on each site, and then focus your attention on your own website and social media pages. People working in multiple geographical locations might find they can have multiple listings by creating new accounts. Our florist/cake decorator should just choose one category (usually the one she’s had the majority of her training in, or comes first in her business name), and she can direct any potential clients to her other services.

Focus on keywords.

Keywords are essential for any website where you rely on online search to be found. Your keywords describe your core business (e.g. catering, wedding photography) and often your geographical area or a specific niche (vintage weddings, ethical diamonds). Make sure you include keywords when writing your directory listing copy. (See Why Keywords are Super Important To Get Found Online.)

Try to get your keywords into your listing title. You may like to add a keyword after your business name – e.g. If your business name is Colour Me Beautiful, you could make your listing under Colour Me Beautiful Make Up Artistry.

Be careful what you pay for.

Most wedding directories will offer a paid premium option that allows your listing to jump to the front of the searches, includes more details, or offers other advantages. Some of these paid listings will bring you plenty of referrals and leads, while others aren’t worth the price.

Figure out exactly what you get for your money. Some directories offer:

•    Premium placement under category headings and searches.

•    Your ad on the front page of the website.

•    A feature on the directory blog.

•    A feature in directory email campaign.

•    Mentions on directory’s Facebook page.

Some of these are only high value in certain circumstances: for example, if the directory’s blog contains only adverts for other vendors, and isn’t read by any brides, it’s not a worthwhile investment. A feature on a Facebook page with 100 followers is worth practically nothing. Don’t be afraid to ask for statistics on different aspects of the ad package.

Before embarking on a paid directory listing, sign up for a free listing and see how much website traffic or inquiries your listing generates. Choose only the top-generating sites to experiment with paid listings.

Have you ever used wedding directories to market your wedding business? Have you had any success with them? What are your top tips for successful wedding directory listings?

Steff Green is a New Zealand-based alternative wedding celebrant and freelance writer. She writes a monthly column on vendor marketing tips on the  WeddingWise blog, a wedding directory with a difference: WeddingWise allows couples to rate and review their vendors, helping future couples to make smart wedding decisions.

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